Users are increasingly obtaining content in digital format, often downloading or streaming that content from a remote service. The content will often be provided in a first format, such as a high resolution content, that will then be converted into various other formats appropriate for different devices or content streams. Because viewers will often have devices and connections with different capabilities, which can vary over time, different versions of the same content can be made available, which can have different bit rates or other quality parameters. While such an approach provides flexibility in content delivery, the approach provides uncertainty in the resources required. For content providers with hundreds of channels that each have different versions available, the resources needed to deliver the content over different periods of time can vary widely. This can result in either excess cost to the provider or lower quality delivered to the viewers, among other potential deficiencies.